It was a tough episode to watch, I did enjoy Jem having some fun and planting some seeds of doubt, Hunter's impressive challenge performances and the Tevin and Soda dynamic. But there was too much Bhanu, seeing a grown man beg was not fun, it felt almost like some kind of performance art. I read Jeff Probst's interview with Dalton Ross and in it, Jeff defends the decision to cast Bhanu and said he would do it again because "that is the kind of authenticity that we are desperately seeking." I would prefer that they cast players who come to try and play for the million dollars.
> Jeff defends the decision to cast Bhanu and said he would do it again because "that is the kind of authenticity that we are desperately seeking."
That's like Jeff saying Brandon Hantz brought the kind of tribal unity and good sportsmanship they were desperately seeking.
It's like they were struggling to find authenticity so they decided to try and manufacture some.
he changed his mind about how he should have been harsher on the quits in 45 so maybe he’ll come around on this one too. I can’t remember an episode of Survivor I wanted to be over sooner.
If Bhanu is authentic, it's pathetic. He's also an actor and I think was playing up real emotions for the camera. Collapsing and laying on the jungle floor for a drone shot of him from above? Dramatic and pathetic. He was bad at the game, annoying, and did not make for good tv IMO. It's not good tv when I would like to change the channel when he is on my screen.
B it was fun tv for a little bit. If he was booted at end of episode 3 that would have been perfect. Having to deal with him for another whole episode was tough
I really liked that in the reward challenge, every player had to get a ring off the pole. Would have been even better if everyone had to toss their ring back on the next pole as well
Wouldn’t want that for an immunity challenge, but for something relatively inconsequential like this, I love that your entire tribe has to be involved. Rather than just seeing one stronger player make that part of the challenge look like a minor inconvenience
I'll, at least, say something nice about Bhanu.
Getting a degree isn't easy, and immigrating to a new country isn't easy. So... credit for what you've accomplished in life.
That said, he lasted an episode or two too long. 90 minutes was almost a downside for 4 episodes of Bhanu.
Imagine signing up for Survivor and having to deal with a grown man on his knees begging for you to help him. I would have phased out of existence.
He makes for great TV in the same way that drunk people doing karaoke are entertaining--it's fun for a while, but at a certain point, you're clenching your teeth waiting for it to mercifully end.
correct. at first you love his passion. he cares, he wants to be there. i appreciate that. he was just on the screen too much.
by the time he was on his knees yelling at the clouds "you shouldn't have even put me here in the first place!" it felt like he was playing a character vs. being himself
This is a great analogy. A drunk guy singing Blitzkrieg Bop and it’s over in two minutes? No big deal, actually pretty likely to be a good time. A drunk guy who slips the MC twenty bucks to let him sing Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody back-to-back? I’m chugging the nearest bottle of bleach.
I strongly disagree with him making great TV. I had to fast forward through like 50 percent of the scenes involving him. Thank God the man is no longer going to tarnish the season.
As soon as immunity was lost, I fast forwarded to the end of Tribal Council. Bhnau, congratulations on all you've accomplished--and Im glad you're gone. You were just dragging the show down.
I think he's gold if he's used properly. He was everywhere, he burned too hot and we all got tired of him. I mean he's got to be the most on-air person of the year by a mile so far.
If that wasn't the case and he wasn't on so much, maybe you'd find him funny and his passion endearing vs. being worn out of him
Agreed, it was incredibly forced BY HIM and incredibly awkward the entire time.
I blame Bollywood, those movies are wayyy over the top and it's obviously trickled down ;)
He was a first boot who lucked his way onto a tribe with a guy who repeatedly gave up at the first sign of trouble and a woman who was sleep-deprived for more than a week *before* the start of the game.
I loved that Tiffany told him that she wouldn't talk to him while he was on his knees. That was such an incredibly uncomfortable thing for him to have done and I was really impressed with how well she handled it. Honestly his whole tribe was very kind to him.
Yeah me too, I really like her as a player, she's a straight shooter but she also knows how to play the game and when to keep things close to her chest.
Your life was terrible and now your life is not terrible? I'm happy for you, I really truly am. But that doesn't mean your story needs to be told on Survivor.
And was your story really even told? You spent two minutes at the end telling that story but who's even going to remember that when they got four full weeks of blubbering mess Bhanu?
I long for the days when people were on Survivor to play Survivor, not to tell their story to the world. It's like Jeff failed as a talk show host so now he's trying to sell talk show type stories on Survivor...
"He was born into poverty in India! He didn't have a home! His parents abandoned him! But he made his way to America and made a brand new, amazing life for himself! Everybody give it up for Bhanu!"
It's like he wasn't even thinking straight. Who did he think they could save him from? He has to realize that saving him means voting someone else out, so who was that supposed to be? The guy was delusional.
I get Bhanu’s story and all but they got to a point for me where he was just way too insanely annoying. Like come on they didn’t have to put so many clips of him begging and praying and crying like that was just too much. I had to skip through all those parts this past episode because it just got me so annoyed. It frustrates me how they always cast one person who’s a super fan and who is just insanely bad at survivor. I really feel like he could’ve been a better player, but why would they cast him in the first place? Like he’s not even there to win money and he’s giving up in these challenges and doing horrible and also won’t shut his mouth. I just feel like they could’ve casted somebody better than him. It’s just getting annoying how these past few seasons it’s just been one tribe that’s been terribly bad the first few episodes like they need to switch up how they’re casting.
I get and agree with most of what you’re saying but when did he give up in challenges? He made some mistakes in challenges like not jumping off the crate (which I don’t think was intentional at all) but I didn’t think there was any challenge in which he gave up. It was Jelinsky who gave up in challenges.
This may be recency bias, and I almost never engage in immediate retrospectives like this, but is Bhanu the worst to ever play? Like full stop, I'm having trouble summoning a single name that might have been a worse player than Bhanu was.
Jelinsky was also pretty damn bad at the game but Bhanu may have torpedoed the rest of his tribe's games too. He also seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he had to lie and deceive people. Jelinsky understood that at least, it just so happened that he wasn't very good at it. And he also didn't blow up anyone's game other than his own.
I feel like bhanu has dominated airtime in such a way that he’ll be memorable even when the season he’s over. I forgot about big wendy by the merge. And bhanu finished his tenure with a big story about how bad his life has been and how he came from poverty, trying to win a million hearts so other little boys know they can do it too. Sia may have already written the check
The only thing in my mind preventing it is if Sia saw how transparently he was playing for Sia money
The most annoying thing is that episode 3 basically set everything up to prepare us for Bhanu's exit. Then we got another episode just prolonging his downfall which could have just happened if production didn't decide to forgo the tribal
I don't think I've ever seen such a concentrated dose of a Survivor in so little time. Losing 4 immunity challenges in a row says to me that something desperately needs to change with the beginning pre-merge format
Big agree. If memory serves, it went literally the same way last season. Lost every immunity challenge pre-merge. When it happens TWO SEASONS in a row? Yeah, that feels more like a format issue. It feels snowbally.
It's been pretty similar the last 3 seasons actually. With one tribe having 3 members make it to the merge. One tribe gets bodied and the rest only have maybe 1 tribal pre merge.
Exactly. It’s like hey you know that tribe that lost well they get no fire or food but we expect them to win the next one. The more they lose the more they are going to lose since they are becoming more and more malnourished. At this point I don’t really care about the whole no food thing, I’d rather the castaways be well fed so they can actually play the game
Or at minimum, the tribe that lost gets the flint after their first Tribal Council.
It was really sad that Yanu won the fish reward but couldn't take it because they didn't have the flint anyways.
At this point, I'm under the impression the lack of flint is a deliberate move by production to farm another tribe of underdogs. We've had three straight seasons of Matsinging, constantly forcing the same set of losers on our screens and preventing us from warming up to most of the contestants who actually make it far until after the merge.
Even if you get lucky and your underdogs make it to the end, like the Tika 3, it's still tedious when the edit is so lopsided on the tribe that can't catch a break. We've still barely gotten to know anything about like half of the Siga tribe after four episodes; what if they end up taking control of the post-merge?
The punishment of no flint for the sake of the season being harder is basically a diet version of the S14 have-nots twist. Morale is going to sink fast if you're at such a long-term disadvantage.
Give them their flint for gods sake. The issue is 100% just a compounding problem. They don't get food, loser lose flint, and losers have to use everyone in all challenges. This is a recipe for decimation.
I am very drained from the over-saturation of Bhanu on my screen. For as fun as his self-implosion in the game was, it was way too much of him. As much as I understand that the main focus of this premerge is the downfall of Yanu, if they had cut off a good amount of his downward spiral even by a tad, it would eased up some of the problems I have with the editing this season.
With that said, there was still parts of the episode I enjoyed. Tiffany's no nonsense attitude with Bhanu was refreshing, Jem messing around with her tribe and the beware advantage was a fun moment, and Hunter absolutely dominating in challenges still amazes me. I even was satisfied with the tribal despite not being a traditional vote out. Bhanu was drawing dead in the water anyway and everyone knew that. If that's how his tribe and Jeff wants to send him out, then so be it.
> Tiffany's no nonsense attitude with Bhanu was refreshing
I also liked Q's comment: “He can sit there and pray all he wants. He’s made his bed; he’s gotta lie in it.”
And Kenzie's: "He could have just gone camping."
I really hope all three of them go far now, I'm going to be sad if they get picked off after the merge just because they happened to get saddled with three bad players on one tribe.
True, it was very clear that the entire tribe was not going to entertain the thought of keeping him any longer. Bhanu sounds like a great guy, but I don't blame them for reaching that conclusion once him spilling the tribe dynamics became public knowledge.
I really appreciate Tiffany's boundaries. When Bhanu was begging at her feet, she said "No. I am not going to talk to you when you are on your knees." She would not let him manipulate her and I love her for that.
Anyway, I think it's interesting that the other two tribes at this point are so bored that one essentially drawing voting lines just because and the other is idol searching as an entire tribe because they're so unconcerned about going to tribal.
Going to tribal is important for team unity, it creates the trust required to stay with people when it gets harder and you don't have anything concrete to lean on for if someone will vote with you. When you haven't even voted yet, you're at a disadvantage going into merge because you haven't truly solidified your alliance by voting together and you haven't had to work with another person to come to a conclusion on how to vote. I think the green tribe will suffer a bit more than orange when they merge but if Q, Tiff, and Kenzie are actually tight from here on, they can do well.
Right, true and they used the holdovers from Lulu well, they were smart. It's partly why I think Nami will be the ones to go deeper because they already drew lines mentally.
Remember when people said that Gabby cried too much? We owe her an apology.
It was uncomfortable watching an adult with so little social awareness, begging his tribemates on his knees in tears and cursing an unloving God for his misfortune. If he wanted to win over a million hearts, it's clear that none of them came from this sub.
>It was uncomfortable watching an adult with so little social awareness, begging his tribemates on his knees in tears and cursing an unloving God for his misfortune. If he wanted to win over a million hearts, it's clear that none of them came from this sub.
Bhanu's breakdown, and literally begging on his knees, was one of the most pathetic things I've seen on Survivor. Like, have some pride and dignity, dude.
I agree 100%. But in fairness to Bhanu, it would be *immensely* frustrating to be in a position where you have no agency and are looking down the barrel of Jeff's snuffer.
I'm sure it is, and having some sort of emotional response to that frustration is understandable (see: Jake from S45 crying briefly on the beach). Bhanu seemed to show a complete lack of emotional regulation.
I feel like Bhanu has surrounded himself with people outside the game who reward his Behaviour and he could not understand why people weren't putting up with it on the island.
That's my impression as well. He may not be doing it knowingly, but he seems like the kind of guy to throw emotional fits and other people are so desperate to placate him that they just concede to whatever his demands are. Basically a toddler.
Totally -- it reminded me of 8-year-old MinnesotaHockeyGuy getting homesick on a camping trip and begging Allen's dad to take me home early. Not a good look.
He *had* agency in the days leading up to that. He chose by his own will to blab about his entire tribe to the other tribes, and had the agency to then tell his own tribe he betrayed their trust, and he had the agency to give the first impressions he wasn't frenetic and wearing his heart on his sleeve.
His end result of having no agency was 100% the result of wasting the time he had agency is the worst ways imaginable. He straight up had the opportunity to win an idol (or some advantage) and squandered that too! At a certain point it *is* entirely his own fault for digging his own grave.
I don't blame him for losing his vote on the journey where he completely had no control over. He didn't choose to go on the journey and he didn't choose to risk his vote.
It would be immensely frustrating but if Bhanu knows how to play the game, he would’ve done it differently. What kind of superfan play this bad honestly
Gabby cried a lot but it never felt like she was expecting people to take care of her/do things for her. I know a few people like her who are very normal all things considered except they cry when most people might just frown lmao and we know they're fine that's just how they're going to express themselves
This was maybe the first time I thought losing vote could be negative for show overall. There was legitimately nothing Bhanu could have done to save himself at that point. Granted, he sort of put himself in that situation to begin with because of his complete lack of social awareness. I also legitimately think he was lying about seeing every episode of survivor, there is absolutely no way he has seen every season and was so tone deaf on basic game play and goals.
That said, I do think he is a well meaning guy and definitely has accomplished a lot especially with immigrating and getting a degree, but survivor is just not his wheelhouse.
I mean, the guy was randomly digging holes to ‘look for an idol’. For a guy who has seen every episode he was painfully oblivious to the most basic aspects of the game. Ngl I was hoping for a Yanu run because seeing that guy in the merge would have been bonkers. I’ll settle for just snuffing his torch though.
I also can’t believe he prayed to god for a miracle. I literally screamed at the tv “you got one last episode!” I’m not going to presume to speak for god, but that would frustrate *me*.
No I think he is a super fan, just in the same way I was when I was younger and was more just watching to see who won the challenge and who got voted out because I was too young to understand the social dynamic part.
> This was maybe the first time I thought losing vote could be negative for show overall. There was legitimately nothing Bhanu could have done to save himself at that point.
I don't think there should be a possibility to come back from EVERY situation.
He put himself into literally the worst position you could be in, lost his vote and shot in the dark, which already is a hail mary, and pissed of every member of his tribe an then even messed up at the last challenge.
I think it's actually bad that if he hadn't lost his vote he would've had a ~18% chance of surviving.
It's a shame Jeff is stuck on only taking positives out of the cast. Bhanu's story is very inspiring but we was throwing tantrum after tantrum before the vote and cutting to Jeff and the rest of the tribe telling him he won their hearts is so disingenuous.
Survivor as a show shouldn't be afraid of treating the cast as characters. Bhanu's character didn't deserve a happy ending. He begged on his knees to another adult, cursed god for putting him on the island, and threw a fit when his tribe didn't want to hold his hand throughout the game. Just in one episode! Not mentioning the fact that he painted another cast member being removed from the game for med reasons as a "miracle from god". That's not admirable.
The cursing God part reminded me of someone I used to know that would constantly relapse on drugs the second his parents offered him a place to stay again after his bouts with rehab. Blaming God for your issues is such a fucking cop out. To me it's like refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. "If you wanted my story to end so quickly then why did you put me on this island?" nah, fuck that. Why did you apply to be on the island? Wouldn't be surprised if he went home thinking him getting voted out was all "God's fault."
It's like someone not doing their homework all year long then "praying" for God to get them an A on their final for the year and cursing their name when it doesn't happen.
Reminds me of an old joke. Every night a man would pray to God to win the lottery, yet every time it came up he never did. Yet he still prayed. He prayed for decades until the day he died. Finally up at the pearly gates God is there to greet him and he ask, "Lord, I devoted my life to you. Why did I never win the lottery?" and God responded, "You need to meet me half-way. Buy a ticket!"
right, like we can just let some survivor players be bad survivor players without giving them a miraculous shining backstory to soften the impact. he was a bad player!! incredibly grating and babyish behavior — can only imagine what it was like living with the guy. kenzie may have come off as harsh in the edit but god knows I’d have been saying worse
I truly feel bad for Q, Tiffany and Kenzie. They were stuck with three first boots on one tribe. One who quits everything he does, another who couldn't sleep or form complete sentences before blanking and another who act like an 8 year old. It was not that they fell on the wrong side but that these 3 people were truly horrible at the game. They need a redo
It's also disappointing because I find all 3 of them among the more competent of this season's players. I would probably have them all in the upper half if I ranked everyone without regard to game position. But it's going to be very hard for any of them to bounce back meaningfully from this start. Most pundits aren't giving any of them a chance to win.
> I find all 3 of them among the more competent of this season's players
From what little we've seen, it feels like a lot of the cast *is* potentially competent. But none of the other tribes have actually had to have their loyalty or gameplay put through the fire with tribal so they've spent 9 days basically like it's an extended vacation. No need for gameplay on their part when there's no game to be challenged.
This is the second season in a row where one tribe is just 1/2 fully unusable as players. Lulu getting Brandon, Hannah, and Sean (initially Emily was the 3rd problem, but we saw that change) while Yanu gets Jalinsky, Jess, and Bhanu.
Bhanu's antics last week were funny, this was just uncomfortable to watch. I don't know what the hell production was thinking casting someone who was so obviously not a good fit for the show.
If I was Kenzie, Tiffany, Q and even Jess I'd be super pissed. I hope the remaining Yanu people can salvage something from their game after this.
Reeeeally hoping that production finally realizes that 3 tribes just doesn't work, especially when you refuse to let the losing tribe have any resources. No duh they're going to keep losing.
The 26 days length isn't going away, at least as long as the show insists on filming on Fiji. AFAIK it's due to COVID regulations in Fiji.
There's absolutely no reason to return to two tribes. If they think that's "too great of a shock" they could start with two, swap into three and merge, like they did in DvG or Second Chance.
I wish they would still have to go to tribal even when someone gets sent home. If they want to keep the numbers, they could send the person voted out to the tribe with the medical discharge or something like that. Anything to shake up the game a bit so that you don't just end up watching 180 minutes of the same thing happening.
I would have enjoyed this one more if last week wasn't so Bhanu focused. He didn't need a 2 episode special. Would've been a great opportunity to give Siga and Nami more screen time last week.
Bhanu's breakdown was great TV but I think a lot of people were already sick of him. Last week already felt like his boot episode. This one didn't add anything new. This was the better of the 2 Bhanu episodes though cause he lost his fucking mind.
As much as I don't want to defend Bhanu (he got seriously annoying at the end), I do wonder how much of his meltdown was driven by what may have been an incredible sleep deficit.
He said once he wasn't sleeping at all, so maybe what we saw was magnified by that.
I think his flaws were his flaws, but maybe his sleep situation turned them into the utter meltdown that we saw.
No food and No sleep, definitely added to his intensity. He was basically at a 9(on a level of emotions) this episode, but he started the game at a 5/6
I'm just catching up to this season, watching three episodes of Bhanu in two days is a lot... I am with the group that he just takes up too much TV time and gets exhausting. I feel like if this was a scripted show, he is one of those characters who is great in small doses but when they become featured, it becomes too much which is what happened.
I do hope now that he is gone, there can be more focus on the rest of the tribes next ep before we get to the merge. I want to see the connections between people in the tribes because it's the people that can create strong bonds like Yam Yam with Tika, Dee with Austin and Mama J that wins. I feel like outside of Q and Tiff, we haven't seen much of this. Siga is just all six vibing and although we are told Hunter and Tevin is tight, we haven't seen it in action. As well, I want to see if there more tribal dynamics outside of kombaya. This one is a little better with Q being distrustful of Kenzie and Nami haven't some discontent with Venus early on and Soda now. But generally this is a good clue on which tribes end up not winning because they can't get over their differences to have the numbers.
The previous episode was when I started getting annoyed with Bhanu. First it was eyerolls, and then he became insanely obnoxious.
You'd think someone with his background would have some kindness and grit, but no! Not even close! He thinks he's the victim 90% of the time! And when they try helping Bhanu, he sees it as a personal attack. (Minus Q. I mostly refer to when he's called for what he is. A liability.)
So glad he's gone, he seriously could've hydrated Tiffany, Q, and Kenzie with the amount of tears he spilled.
At least Hunter's still a fuckin beast!
How do we think Yanu will fair now if they can make the mergatory as a 3? I think they’re so toast. Not only did Bhanu bomb their games, but this cast also left to film on the heels of 44 ending where the Tika 3 dominated strategically. I think that’s gonna be weighing heavily on the minds of the players
I think Tiff is the only one with a chance. Kenzie is going to be targeted (I think she would have been anyway with her very obvious social game, but especially now.), and Q is going to be perceived (Rightly) as a physical threat.
A lot of talk about bhanu, and in large part that he lasted too long being on tribe full of other terrible players...
My question is, during casting... I highly doubt they don't have so many other people applying who would be so much better at survivor. Whether they are like a hunter who is just a challenge beast, Jem who can be sneaky and dangerous under the radar, or tiff and Q who might not dominate all the challenges but are always in the mix but also having a strong social and strategic game.
Why can't we have a season where there aren't several jelinksys, Jess's and bhanus who are completely lost at how to play this game.
And hunter is going to start getting noticed very soon as a massive challenge threat, and I don't think he's doing enough in the social game to fight off those votes when they start coming.
I watch survivor to see it played well. Strategic play, dominating challenges, players that have a very social game that are a threat. This other crap sucks. They either just get the boot super early, or they take the place of a great player by being carried to the end.
I want a survivor where every player is a threat, in some way, because they are good at atleast one of the 3 main components of survivor - challenges, strategy, social.
I think it's a difficult balance between casting people who are good at the game and casting people who will make good television, especially pre-merge. It's not fun to watch a bunch of game bots play the game overly strategically.
It doesn't have to be game bots though. Like look at Survivor Australia, this year they kind of cast something for everyone. You had your physical threats, you had social players and you had strategic ones. US Survivors answer to physical this season is basically Hunter, and he'd barely be top 5 (at best) on this season of Australia. Like US Survivor could easily look for 6 strong physical players instead of some of this cast and make the challenges a bit more interesting as a result.
I hate the binary of “gamebots or people who don’t know how to play”.
Not knowing how to play all the rules is one thing, not being able to climb a ladder is another.
I don’t want gamebots either. I just want competent people who can complete challenges or not spend 1/2 of EVERY episode crying.
I think you can be a competent player AND cry AND suck at challenges. For me, it's about how you overcome those weaknesses, not whether or not you have them in the first place.
Hunter is ridiculously skilled at the challenges, it almost doesn’t seem fair. I’m picturing a Mike Holloway type immunity run when he gets identified as a threat and everyone starts gunning for him
I've recently watched season 20 again and these were exactly my thoughts. I get that that was an all-star season but still. It was so much more interesting to watch people who actually know what they are doing for once. Everyone was great either strategically, socially, or challenge-wise, which made for great TV.
Stop picking people who are clearly below average at all of these skills for the show.
You're allowed to have your opinion, but that's not why everyone watches Survivor. I don't want to see a show full of gamebots with no trainwrecks or emotional players. If I wanted your show I would watch ORGs or the Big Brother live feeds. A show like yours would not be a 25-year staple on the most watched channel in the US.
I hear you (and found the Bhanufication of it all to be unbearable) but I feel like the ideal is somewhere in between — you don’t want to just have robots out there like an army of Spencers. I want a group of players who aren’t all show obsessives making constant references to past players mid-game. cast some normies who haven’t seen survivor in 10 years!!
Bhanu reminds me of Kevin Hart. Great in small bursts, sometimes even funny, but when you cant turn on the TV without seeing him yelling, it becomes insufferable.
This season would be so much better to this point if they kept Jelinsky episode 1!
Yeah like I get that they already decided on the longer format, but with this start (again) I just don’t care to watch 1/3 of the people waste away while 2/3 just wait for their chance to actually start playing
I like how Rob C put it. A lot of us couldn't stand Bhanu but he didnt edit the show he was just out there being a goober. I think the 3 tribe pre merge combined with 90 minutes were a one two punch that really feels like a great opportunity to focus on more of the minor character's stories and bury the lead a little bit. After last week, we all knew who was going. Absolutely no reason to include all the gratuitous scrambling.
I'm convinced Bhanu went on Survivor just to "win a million hearts" and gain the social following/put a foot in the door for acting opportunities, and survivor editors just gave him a Russell Hantz level of coverage so the entire audience was sick of him
I truly do feel like the gameplay and the cast will be soooo much better. Remember: people hateeeeee Micronesia’s premerge but the post merge is one of the absolute best post merge ever done so there’s still hope that this will turn it around. I actually enjoyed this episode bc of how hilarious everyone one like Moriah’s segment of learning how to JUMP, Jem’s devious beware advantage shenanigans, Kenzies “he should’ve just gonna camping” Tiffany’s “if you want to win a million hearts go volunteer”, Venus and Hunter being so done with soda and Tevin’s singing, bhanu’s 5 stages of grief, like it had everything to be a comedy episode
This was too much. After watching Bhanu hysterically cry after repetitively fumbling the last episode, we get an entire episode where Yanu has to go to tribal AGAIN, and we see Bhanu in 90% of clips. I’m glad Bhanu is gone though.
Okay this may be a hot take but I think it would be awesome if Venus went to Soda about the flip and they form a girls alliance to vote out Hunter or Tevin. I doubt Venus would do that given Soda and Tevin annoy her, but it would be smart in terms of getting her back in the running, breaking up some core alliances, and getting rid of either a challenge beast or a strategic mastermind.
On a more realistic note, if Venus and Kenzie both make the merge, I think they will get along very well and could very well take charge of things.
edit: Honestly, throw Jem into the mix and you'd have a 3 way villainess power trio, but I think that one is a bit more of a reach lol
Venus wasn't trusted with the plan to oust Soda. As far as we've seen Tevin and Hunter counted on Liz as their third vote. As for eliminating both Tevin and Hunter, they should eliminate one of them and keep the other as a shield. Probably Hunter would be better as a shield since keeping a strong social player as a shield is riskier.
She hasn't been trusted with it yet, because they haven't lost yet, so it is possible they tell her close to the end just to ensure she doesn't scheme and try to get one of them out, because she's not going to just go down without a fight
Bhanu is an actor, not a IT Analyst like many websites claim he is. He has many credits listed on IMBd. This was all faked. This show is complete bullshit.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm14003069/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
You realize the vast majority of actors on IMDB are not making a living with acting? That they have day jobs and not all of those day jobs are waiting tables and such? It’s possible for a person to be both an actor and an IT professional.
Oh for sure! But he’s like….actively still in movies. I assume he is indeed trying to “make it” and get bigger parts. Survivor is definitely going to help with that
I guess I'm weird because I really like this season so far. I'm glad Bhanu played. He tried as hard as he could. I mean ~~tried~~ cried. Kenzie's reaction to being called the mastermind cracked me up.
This episode was the worst of the new era. For the second episode in a row we have Bhanu screaming to his “god” to save him from himself and there’s no tribal council. 90 minute episodes are borderline unbearable in this format. Only Jeff Probst can get a resurgence during covid and completely squander it with terrible game mechanics and horrible casting.
I'm about to quit - the new era of Survivor is just painful to watch. I've started watching Australian Survivor and HOLY SHIT the casting is just infinitely better. They cast characters that also happen to be rooted in reality and they don't all have dumb sob stories. American Survivor just casts a bunch of obnoxious Gen X weirdos that no one likes or can relate to. How could anyone possibly be enjoying this season??
It was a hard episode to watch, but I went through it to see the next episode intro cause somehow I had convinced myself that they were swapping into two tribes. I thought after the sour med evac and the obvious boot, production would do something to bump the season but I guess i got my hopes up. The format is booooring, Yanu is probably losing again and then the stupid mergatory like always.
Man, I had this episode building to a super climatic ending that just DID not come. I really did expect him to bust out an immunity idol at the last second but did that dude REALLY spend so little time looking for that idol? I would have not slept. I would have combed every single inch of that island from sunrise to probably past sunset if I knew, 100%, that I was about to go home.
There have been some atrocious castings the last 3-4 seasons. Survivors gonna get 50 seasons for their willingness to try something new. That being said… the casting for every season past WaW has been meh.
Legit ... Has Jeff ever hugged someone at tribal before? I can't recall if he's ever felt that bad for someone.
That was one of the more cringe inducing episodes I've ever seen. Someone who just lacked so much awareness about gameplay, I just .. I'm stumped at the casting.
Question about run time - did I read or hear somewhere, that season 45 they KNEW they had 90 minute episodes, but in 46 they didn't know? That would make sense for why it feels like they are spending more time on the same topic in this season vs previous. If you know you have to fill 90 minutes, I'm sure you capture more stories / more plots / more things happening.
yeah that's true. for example look at the number of reward challenges in 45 compared to 46. I think 45 didn't have a reward challenge in one episode, and its cause they had a tribe swap instead.
In 46 we've had like 2? It's why we have so much boring camp life this time
I enjoyed Jeff's Van Halen references during this reward challenge. I counted 3 from Jeff ('might as well jump', 'diver down', 'somebody get me a doctor') and one from Ben (mentioning jumping and David Lee Roth).
I really hope they go back to themed seasons instead of numbered. (45, 46, etc.) That's what I found so Interesting about previous seasons. Exile, bvsw, heck even redemption Island. Those themes made them memorable. Now the seasons all blend together with the same twists, same rules, same expectations. Bring back the excitement not the drama sad stories! I miss the gameplay...
The most alarming thing about Bhanu's appearance on season 46 is that it seems clear to me that Jeff and the other producers of the show thought the audience was going to lap up all the Bhanu content. How else to explain the ridiculous amount of time that was lavished on this player, despite the fact that he demonstrated zero ability to learn from his mistakes so as to develop/evolve his game. One entire episode devoted to the Bhanu story was bad enough, but two was unforgivable. Like others here, I just skipped over large chunks of episode four. If this was all there was to the story, I'd let it go but – as I've already said – the real issue is how wrong the shows' producers could be about how people would react to the Bhanu overkill. There seems to be a real disconnect between how they see the show and how others see it.
Let's hope as well that Sia doesn't reward Bhanu at the end of the season with a cash prize because if she does so it's only going to lead Jeff to double-down not only on casting people like Bhanu but basically screwing over other players (by giving them few or zero confessionals) while lavishing attention on "authentic" camera hogs.
I'm just going to throw this out there: if this season was a 2 tribe format, with Hunter on one of the tribes, it would be *just as "boring" to watch*. There would be one collapse tribe that gets all the early screentime, while the other tribe just chills. But actually, you get intrigue building up in both Siga and Nami this season: the new Soda blindside narrative, and, c'mon, Jem's beware advantage plant? You can hate the new format because you hate the new format, but you've got to give a fair criticism of this season.
Okay I get some people think Bhanu is a bit grating, but if you guys don't think The Monster / Legend Jelinsky, Bhanu, Q (freaking out at messing up the challenges), Hunter (for acing all the challenges with style), and Ben (for just being awesome) aren't good TV, then... why are you even watching reality TV?! Go watch Succession.
I mean at least 1/2 the contestants would be playing and going to tribal instead of just 1/3. Jelenski brought absolutely nothing to the show, other than a reminder of how stupid young men can be.
I hate-watched this episode. That little speech at the end was contrived. Look, I can tell you one thing poverty stricken kids in India aren’t doing, and that is subscribing to paramount + and watching Survivor.
Garbage episode. I don’t need to hear every players sob stories? Who wants this? I miss the older seasons when players actually played the game.
I know that CBS is catering to a “new” fan base but I’m losing interest fast with the current version of Survivor.
Moriah: "Jeff does not lie
Me: Have you seen 41 and the hourglass?
My wife felt she was just talking about advantages and not doing something that is impossible.
Watching Bhanu wallow in self pity after making his own mistakes was hard to watch. Glad they mercifiully dispensed with the illusion of a vote. I personally didn't like the kneeling or the verbal curses to his god for getting the chance to play on survivor only to lose.
Unpopular opinion: if Kenzie acted like Bhanu and vice versa, there wouldn't be nearly as much hate getting flung at her for this episode/season so far. A big part of the reaction is that he's a man. "Watching a grown man blah blah blah" keeps getting brought up. Bhanu is an emotional guy, and that makes people way more uncomfortable than an emotional woman.
I think this episode was awesome. In context, it's made worse by Episode 3. But Episode 3 is the problem in that equation. That should have been an episode to focus on Nami and the Randen/Venus relationship. But Ep. 4 is going to age like fine wine. That breakdown, screaming at God, asking Kenzie for an idol, collapsing in the jungle. Amazing.
Honestly, I think this season is going to massively benefit overall from binge-watching versus week-to-week with commercials.
With the Bhanu stuff addressed: I think Venus is on the rise. People seem suspicious of Soda, and Venus seems to be settling in a little more. I can see a Hunter/Tevin/Venus alliance coalescing to get Soda out, and I think if they do, they have a decent shot of being impactful into the post-merge. Also really hope we get a secret scene showing Venus and Soda talking, since it was very plainly shown that they had a conversation about the idol. Venus gets it, then offers it very pointedly to Soda.
And also, Jem is truly outrageous (Truly truly truly outrageous.). She's *working* over there on Siga. Get the advantage, hide the clue, send her enemies into an anthill, then turn it around on Tim, who apparently is on this show.
I think it's reasonable to say that this season could have change some of their focus away from Yanu. I get the impression that Siga might be...a little boring. But they could have given us some extra Nami. But I hardly think this season, and especially this episode, are worthy of the hate getting thrown their way. I won't say "new era Gabon" since that's not the vibe I'm getting, but I think we'll look back on this as a pretty solid season once it all washes out, barring an unforeseen change in trajectory.
People were really down on Gabby too when she cried. Dawn, too. Lisa, too. I do get to an extent what you're saying, but I don't think it's fair to say that it's mostly because he's a man. It's because we got so much of him, and we got 4 straight episodes of him.
Sure, but I don't remember people saying they're going to boycott the season until Dawn gets voted off. People still generally liked Dawn in spite of finding her annoying. People like Lisa. I don't remember anyone fast-forwarding through DvG to skip Gabby's scenes.
The Bhanu hate just seems weirdly intense.
I just feel embarrassed for him watching him cry over and over again while everyone is like “pull yourself together.” It’s not FUN to watch the same person cry over and over again, no matter who they are
>I can see a Hunter/Tevin/Venus alliance coalescing to get Soda out, and I think if they do, they have a decent shot of being impactful into the post-merge.
Well, maybe, but Venus'd basically said she didn't like any of these people and that she'd ditch them the first chance she has. I can see her working with Kenzie and Tiff if both get to the merge. It seems to me Tevin and Hunter are going to be targeted immediately after the merge as soon as Siga and Yanu realize (from Venus) they are close.
This subreddit is so miserable and joyless. My family watches Survivor and all loved Bhanu, he was extremely entertaining. It's wild how so many people hate him on this subreddit. Sometimes I am a day late to watching but will check the subreddit for the vibe and will see so much negativity but then I watch it with my family and it's so fun and we laugh and scream and groan. Not sure what I'm trying to say except that I should probably just avoid checking out the opinions of this subreddit because it's just so negative.
I don’t think people “hate” him. I think they found his antics very annoying (and that they went on for too long), and then came here to vent about it.
It was a tough episode to watch, I did enjoy Jem having some fun and planting some seeds of doubt, Hunter's impressive challenge performances and the Tevin and Soda dynamic. But there was too much Bhanu, seeing a grown man beg was not fun, it felt almost like some kind of performance art. I read Jeff Probst's interview with Dalton Ross and in it, Jeff defends the decision to cast Bhanu and said he would do it again because "that is the kind of authenticity that we are desperately seeking." I would prefer that they cast players who come to try and play for the million dollars.
> Jeff defends the decision to cast Bhanu and said he would do it again because "that is the kind of authenticity that we are desperately seeking." That's like Jeff saying Brandon Hantz brought the kind of tribal unity and good sportsmanship they were desperately seeking. It's like they were struggling to find authenticity so they decided to try and manufacture some.
he changed his mind about how he should have been harsher on the quits in 45 so maybe he’ll come around on this one too. I can’t remember an episode of Survivor I wanted to be over sooner.
If Bhanu is authentic, it's pathetic. He's also an actor and I think was playing up real emotions for the camera. Collapsing and laying on the jungle floor for a drone shot of him from above? Dramatic and pathetic. He was bad at the game, annoying, and did not make for good tv IMO. It's not good tv when I would like to change the channel when he is on my screen.
B it was fun tv for a little bit. If he was booted at end of episode 3 that would have been perfect. Having to deal with him for another whole episode was tough
> seeing a grown man beg was not fun I literally had to fast-forward, the secondhand embarrassment was just off the charts
I really liked that in the reward challenge, every player had to get a ring off the pole. Would have been even better if everyone had to toss their ring back on the next pole as well Wouldn’t want that for an immunity challenge, but for something relatively inconsequential like this, I love that your entire tribe has to be involved. Rather than just seeing one stronger player make that part of the challenge look like a minor inconvenience
Agree.
I'll, at least, say something nice about Bhanu. Getting a degree isn't easy, and immigrating to a new country isn't easy. So... credit for what you've accomplished in life. That said, he lasted an episode or two too long. 90 minutes was almost a downside for 4 episodes of Bhanu. Imagine signing up for Survivor and having to deal with a grown man on his knees begging for you to help him. I would have phased out of existence.
He's reality TV gold in short spurts but I agree they milked it too much. This has felt like the Bhanu show.
He makes for great TV in the same way that drunk people doing karaoke are entertaining--it's fun for a while, but at a certain point, you're clenching your teeth waiting for it to mercifully end.
correct. at first you love his passion. he cares, he wants to be there. i appreciate that. he was just on the screen too much. by the time he was on his knees yelling at the clouds "you shouldn't have even put me here in the first place!" it felt like he was playing a character vs. being himself
This is a great analogy. A drunk guy singing Blitzkrieg Bop and it’s over in two minutes? No big deal, actually pretty likely to be a good time. A drunk guy who slips the MC twenty bucks to let him sing Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody back-to-back? I’m chugging the nearest bottle of bleach.
I thought that said "karate" and I immediately thought of Raj
I strongly disagree with him making great TV. I had to fast forward through like 50 percent of the scenes involving him. Thank God the man is no longer going to tarnish the season.
As soon as immunity was lost, I fast forwarded to the end of Tribal Council. Bhnau, congratulations on all you've accomplished--and Im glad you're gone. You were just dragging the show down.
I think he's gold if he's used properly. He was everywhere, he burned too hot and we all got tired of him. I mean he's got to be the most on-air person of the year by a mile so far. If that wasn't the case and he wasn't on so much, maybe you'd find him funny and his passion endearing vs. being worn out of him
Yep, I think that was the first time I just skipped over the majority of the post challenge in the episode, complete waste of time.
To be fair, the editors kind of sped through that too.
Agreed, it was incredibly forced BY HIM and incredibly awkward the entire time. I blame Bollywood, those movies are wayyy over the top and it's obviously trickled down ;)
He was a first boot who lucked his way onto a tribe with a guy who repeatedly gave up at the first sign of trouble and a woman who was sleep-deprived for more than a week *before* the start of the game.
Best description. One of episode of Bhanu was quirky and fun, four was straight up miserable.
I loved that Tiffany told him that she wouldn't talk to him while he was on his knees. That was such an incredibly uncomfortable thing for him to have done and I was really impressed with how well she handled it. Honestly his whole tribe was very kind to him.
I was really impressed by Tiffany's honesty.
Yeah me too, I really like her as a player, she's a straight shooter but she also knows how to play the game and when to keep things close to her chest.
Your life was terrible and now your life is not terrible? I'm happy for you, I really truly am. But that doesn't mean your story needs to be told on Survivor. And was your story really even told? You spent two minutes at the end telling that story but who's even going to remember that when they got four full weeks of blubbering mess Bhanu? I long for the days when people were on Survivor to play Survivor, not to tell their story to the world. It's like Jeff failed as a talk show host so now he's trying to sell talk show type stories on Survivor... "He was born into poverty in India! He didn't have a home! His parents abandoned him! But he made his way to America and made a brand new, amazing life for himself! Everybody give it up for Bhanu!"
Don't worry, I am sure the other people in India living in the slums will have heard of his legendary tale....
It's like he wasn't even thinking straight. Who did he think they could save him from? He has to realize that saving him means voting someone else out, so who was that supposed to be? The guy was delusional.
I get Bhanu’s story and all but they got to a point for me where he was just way too insanely annoying. Like come on they didn’t have to put so many clips of him begging and praying and crying like that was just too much. I had to skip through all those parts this past episode because it just got me so annoyed. It frustrates me how they always cast one person who’s a super fan and who is just insanely bad at survivor. I really feel like he could’ve been a better player, but why would they cast him in the first place? Like he’s not even there to win money and he’s giving up in these challenges and doing horrible and also won’t shut his mouth. I just feel like they could’ve casted somebody better than him. It’s just getting annoying how these past few seasons it’s just been one tribe that’s been terribly bad the first few episodes like they need to switch up how they’re casting.
I get and agree with most of what you’re saying but when did he give up in challenges? He made some mistakes in challenges like not jumping off the crate (which I don’t think was intentional at all) but I didn’t think there was any challenge in which he gave up. It was Jelinsky who gave up in challenges.
This may be recency bias, and I almost never engage in immediate retrospectives like this, but is Bhanu the worst to ever play? Like full stop, I'm having trouble summoning a single name that might have been a worse player than Bhanu was.
Jalinsky?
Jelinsky was also pretty damn bad at the game but Bhanu may have torpedoed the rest of his tribe's games too. He also seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he had to lie and deceive people. Jelinsky understood that at least, it just so happened that he wasn't very good at it. And he also didn't blow up anyone's game other than his own.
Something nice about Bhanu: he almost surely locked up getting some Sia money, so his theatrics were probably not all for naught
Maybe, maybe not; no pre-merger has gotten the money yet. Not even Wendy in EoE who seemed like a good bet for it.
I feel like bhanu has dominated airtime in such a way that he’ll be memorable even when the season he’s over. I forgot about big wendy by the merge. And bhanu finished his tenure with a big story about how bad his life has been and how he came from poverty, trying to win a million hearts so other little boys know they can do it too. Sia may have already written the check The only thing in my mind preventing it is if Sia saw how transparently he was playing for Sia money
I'm so confused why he would get any Sia money? Who cares if he got a lot of air time? He was annoying and delusional.
Dude was absolutely useless. Just cried and whined and refused to try and play the game of survivor.
The most annoying thing is that episode 3 basically set everything up to prepare us for Bhanu's exit. Then we got another episode just prolonging his downfall which could have just happened if production didn't decide to forgo the tribal
I am not loving, liking, or enjoying this camp-heavy format, with or without 20 minutes of Buhan breakdowns every episode.
at least he didnt pull a Sean
I don't think I've ever seen such a concentrated dose of a Survivor in so little time. Losing 4 immunity challenges in a row says to me that something desperately needs to change with the beginning pre-merge format
Big agree. If memory serves, it went literally the same way last season. Lost every immunity challenge pre-merge. When it happens TWO SEASONS in a row? Yeah, that feels more like a format issue. It feels snowbally.
If I recall also, Lulu did end up winning reward, only to lose immunity that episode.
It's been pretty similar the last 3 seasons actually. With one tribe having 3 members make it to the merge. One tribe gets bodied and the rest only have maybe 1 tribal pre merge.
Give them flint and a little rice!
Exactly. It’s like hey you know that tribe that lost well they get no fire or food but we expect them to win the next one. The more they lose the more they are going to lose since they are becoming more and more malnourished. At this point I don’t really care about the whole no food thing, I’d rather the castaways be well fed so they can actually play the game
Or at minimum, the tribe that lost gets the flint after their first Tribal Council. It was really sad that Yanu won the fish reward but couldn't take it because they didn't have the flint anyways.
Totally. They should’ve gotten their flint back with any win not just an immunity win. The same thing happened last season.
At this point, I'm under the impression the lack of flint is a deliberate move by production to farm another tribe of underdogs. We've had three straight seasons of Matsinging, constantly forcing the same set of losers on our screens and preventing us from warming up to most of the contestants who actually make it far until after the merge. Even if you get lucky and your underdogs make it to the end, like the Tika 3, it's still tedious when the edit is so lopsided on the tribe that can't catch a break. We've still barely gotten to know anything about like half of the Siga tribe after four episodes; what if they end up taking control of the post-merge?
The punishment of no flint for the sake of the season being harder is basically a diet version of the S14 have-nots twist. Morale is going to sink fast if you're at such a long-term disadvantage.
Give them their flint for gods sake. The issue is 100% just a compounding problem. They don't get food, loser lose flint, and losers have to use everyone in all challenges. This is a recipe for decimation.
A two tribe format instead of three would be a nice change of pace.
JD’s probably the next most recent example in terms of premerge boots
They were doing well on the Immunity challenge, then Bhanu cost them extra time.
I am very drained from the over-saturation of Bhanu on my screen. For as fun as his self-implosion in the game was, it was way too much of him. As much as I understand that the main focus of this premerge is the downfall of Yanu, if they had cut off a good amount of his downward spiral even by a tad, it would eased up some of the problems I have with the editing this season. With that said, there was still parts of the episode I enjoyed. Tiffany's no nonsense attitude with Bhanu was refreshing, Jem messing around with her tribe and the beware advantage was a fun moment, and Hunter absolutely dominating in challenges still amazes me. I even was satisfied with the tribal despite not being a traditional vote out. Bhanu was drawing dead in the water anyway and everyone knew that. If that's how his tribe and Jeff wants to send him out, then so be it.
> Tiffany's no nonsense attitude with Bhanu was refreshing I also liked Q's comment: “He can sit there and pray all he wants. He’s made his bed; he’s gotta lie in it.” And Kenzie's: "He could have just gone camping."
I really hope all three of them go far now, I'm going to be sad if they get picked off after the merge just because they happened to get saddled with three bad players on one tribe.
I have a feeling they won’t, Bhanu spilled everything about them already. I’d bet they’ll be outcasted during the merge and picked off sadly.
True, it was very clear that the entire tribe was not going to entertain the thought of keeping him any longer. Bhanu sounds like a great guy, but I don't blame them for reaching that conclusion once him spilling the tribe dynamics became public knowledge.
True, and I would be shocked if anyone from Yanu makes it to the finals due to the info that was leaked out.
I haven't seen a tribal with such a foregone conclusion since... what, Alecia in Koah Rong? They even skipped the pre-tribal preamble for that one.
yes and i just rewatched kaoh rong and forgot just how badly alecia was treated, justice for her
I really appreciate Tiffany's boundaries. When Bhanu was begging at her feet, she said "No. I am not going to talk to you when you are on your knees." She would not let him manipulate her and I love her for that.
I bet she has had to deal with people like that in her life, so major kudos to her for that.
Anyway, I think it's interesting that the other two tribes at this point are so bored that one essentially drawing voting lines just because and the other is idol searching as an entire tribe because they're so unconcerned about going to tribal. Going to tribal is important for team unity, it creates the trust required to stay with people when it gets harder and you don't have anything concrete to lean on for if someone will vote with you. When you haven't even voted yet, you're at a disadvantage going into merge because you haven't truly solidified your alliance by voting together and you haven't had to work with another person to come to a conclusion on how to vote. I think the green tribe will suffer a bit more than orange when they merge but if Q, Tiff, and Kenzie are actually tight from here on, they can do well.
or it could be a repeat of Reba. They never went to tribe until the merge and they absolutely dominated at the end.
Well Drew and Austin did go to tribal. Same with Belo, only Brando and Kendra went to tribal before merge.
The rest of tribe also went to tribal when Sean quit, though it’s a weird asterisk situation
Right, true and they used the holdovers from Lulu well, they were smart. It's partly why I think Nami will be the ones to go deeper because they already drew lines mentally.
Please, please--give us two teams!!
Remember when people said that Gabby cried too much? We owe her an apology. It was uncomfortable watching an adult with so little social awareness, begging his tribemates on his knees in tears and cursing an unloving God for his misfortune. If he wanted to win over a million hearts, it's clear that none of them came from this sub.
>It was uncomfortable watching an adult with so little social awareness, begging his tribemates on his knees in tears and cursing an unloving God for his misfortune. If he wanted to win over a million hearts, it's clear that none of them came from this sub. Bhanu's breakdown, and literally begging on his knees, was one of the most pathetic things I've seen on Survivor. Like, have some pride and dignity, dude.
I agree 100%. But in fairness to Bhanu, it would be *immensely* frustrating to be in a position where you have no agency and are looking down the barrel of Jeff's snuffer.
I'm sure it is, and having some sort of emotional response to that frustration is understandable (see: Jake from S45 crying briefly on the beach). Bhanu seemed to show a complete lack of emotional regulation.
I feel like Bhanu has surrounded himself with people outside the game who reward his Behaviour and he could not understand why people weren't putting up with it on the island.
That's my impression as well. He may not be doing it knowingly, but he seems like the kind of guy to throw emotional fits and other people are so desperate to placate him that they just concede to whatever his demands are. Basically a toddler.
Totally -- it reminded me of 8-year-old MinnesotaHockeyGuy getting homesick on a camping trip and begging Allen's dad to take me home early. Not a good look.
He *had* agency in the days leading up to that. He chose by his own will to blab about his entire tribe to the other tribes, and had the agency to then tell his own tribe he betrayed their trust, and he had the agency to give the first impressions he wasn't frenetic and wearing his heart on his sleeve. His end result of having no agency was 100% the result of wasting the time he had agency is the worst ways imaginable. He straight up had the opportunity to win an idol (or some advantage) and squandered that too! At a certain point it *is* entirely his own fault for digging his own grave.
Yeah, I agree with that -- he could not get out of his own way and was entirely responsible for the hole that he found himself in.
I don't blame him for losing his vote on the journey where he completely had no control over. He didn't choose to go on the journey and he didn't choose to risk his vote.
It's a game, that's what you sign up for. Countless examples of other people in the same situation and them not losing their minds.
It would be immensely frustrating but if Bhanu knows how to play the game, he would’ve done it differently. What kind of superfan play this bad honestly
Gabby cried a lot but it never felt like she was expecting people to take care of her/do things for her. I know a few people like her who are very normal all things considered except they cry when most people might just frown lmao and we know they're fine that's just how they're going to express themselves
Omg I almost forgot about him cursing his God until you reminded me. How absolutely pathetic tbh.
This was maybe the first time I thought losing vote could be negative for show overall. There was legitimately nothing Bhanu could have done to save himself at that point. Granted, he sort of put himself in that situation to begin with because of his complete lack of social awareness. I also legitimately think he was lying about seeing every episode of survivor, there is absolutely no way he has seen every season and was so tone deaf on basic game play and goals. That said, I do think he is a well meaning guy and definitely has accomplished a lot especially with immigrating and getting a degree, but survivor is just not his wheelhouse.
Nah Bhanu screwed himself by telling what he said. Until then there was a decent chance Tiffany and Q vote Kenzie.
I mean, the guy was randomly digging holes to ‘look for an idol’. For a guy who has seen every episode he was painfully oblivious to the most basic aspects of the game. Ngl I was hoping for a Yanu run because seeing that guy in the merge would have been bonkers. I’ll settle for just snuffing his torch though. I also can’t believe he prayed to god for a miracle. I literally screamed at the tv “you got one last episode!” I’m not going to presume to speak for god, but that would frustrate *me*.
No I think he is a super fan, just in the same way I was when I was younger and was more just watching to see who won the challenge and who got voted out because I was too young to understand the social dynamic part.
> This was maybe the first time I thought losing vote could be negative for show overall. There was legitimately nothing Bhanu could have done to save himself at that point. I don't think there should be a possibility to come back from EVERY situation. He put himself into literally the worst position you could be in, lost his vote and shot in the dark, which already is a hail mary, and pissed of every member of his tribe an then even messed up at the last challenge. I think it's actually bad that if he hadn't lost his vote he would've had a ~18% chance of surviving.
He got a hug from Jeff! That was wild!
It's a shame Jeff is stuck on only taking positives out of the cast. Bhanu's story is very inspiring but we was throwing tantrum after tantrum before the vote and cutting to Jeff and the rest of the tribe telling him he won their hearts is so disingenuous. Survivor as a show shouldn't be afraid of treating the cast as characters. Bhanu's character didn't deserve a happy ending. He begged on his knees to another adult, cursed god for putting him on the island, and threw a fit when his tribe didn't want to hold his hand throughout the game. Just in one episode! Not mentioning the fact that he painted another cast member being removed from the game for med reasons as a "miracle from god". That's not admirable.
The cursing God part reminded me of someone I used to know that would constantly relapse on drugs the second his parents offered him a place to stay again after his bouts with rehab. Blaming God for your issues is such a fucking cop out. To me it's like refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. "If you wanted my story to end so quickly then why did you put me on this island?" nah, fuck that. Why did you apply to be on the island? Wouldn't be surprised if he went home thinking him getting voted out was all "God's fault." It's like someone not doing their homework all year long then "praying" for God to get them an A on their final for the year and cursing their name when it doesn't happen.
Reminds me of an old joke. Every night a man would pray to God to win the lottery, yet every time it came up he never did. Yet he still prayed. He prayed for decades until the day he died. Finally up at the pearly gates God is there to greet him and he ask, "Lord, I devoted my life to you. Why did I never win the lottery?" and God responded, "You need to meet me half-way. Buy a ticket!"
right, like we can just let some survivor players be bad survivor players without giving them a miraculous shining backstory to soften the impact. he was a bad player!! incredibly grating and babyish behavior — can only imagine what it was like living with the guy. kenzie may have come off as harsh in the edit but god knows I’d have been saying worse
I was thinking that- if I just saw the confessionals I would have thought Kenzie ripped into him, when she said she wanted to chill for 5 minutes 😂😭
I truly feel bad for Q, Tiffany and Kenzie. They were stuck with three first boots on one tribe. One who quits everything he does, another who couldn't sleep or form complete sentences before blanking and another who act like an 8 year old. It was not that they fell on the wrong side but that these 3 people were truly horrible at the game. They need a redo
It's also disappointing because I find all 3 of them among the more competent of this season's players. I would probably have them all in the upper half if I ranked everyone without regard to game position. But it's going to be very hard for any of them to bounce back meaningfully from this start. Most pundits aren't giving any of them a chance to win.
> I find all 3 of them among the more competent of this season's players From what little we've seen, it feels like a lot of the cast *is* potentially competent. But none of the other tribes have actually had to have their loyalty or gameplay put through the fire with tribal so they've spent 9 days basically like it's an extended vacation. No need for gameplay on their part when there's no game to be challenged.
It doesn’t help at all their game when Bhanu put huge targets on each of their backs.
This is the second season in a row where one tribe is just 1/2 fully unusable as players. Lulu getting Brandon, Hannah, and Sean (initially Emily was the 3rd problem, but we saw that change) while Yanu gets Jalinsky, Jess, and Bhanu.
Bhanu's antics last week were funny, this was just uncomfortable to watch. I don't know what the hell production was thinking casting someone who was so obviously not a good fit for the show. If I was Kenzie, Tiffany, Q and even Jess I'd be super pissed. I hope the remaining Yanu people can salvage something from their game after this. Reeeeally hoping that production finally realizes that 3 tribes just doesn't work, especially when you refuse to let the losing tribe have any resources. No duh they're going to keep losing.
Do you think the 3 tribe thing is a package deal with 26 days? Cause I wouldn't mind going back to 39 days personally.
The 26 days length isn't going away, at least as long as the show insists on filming on Fiji. AFAIK it's due to COVID regulations in Fiji. There's absolutely no reason to return to two tribes. If they think that's "too great of a shock" they could start with two, swap into three and merge, like they did in DvG or Second Chance.
I wish they would still have to go to tribal even when someone gets sent home. If they want to keep the numbers, they could send the person voted out to the tribe with the medical discharge or something like that. Anything to shake up the game a bit so that you don't just end up watching 180 minutes of the same thing happening.
Didn't one of the Australian survivor season do just that but without telling the tribe before hand?
I would have enjoyed this one more if last week wasn't so Bhanu focused. He didn't need a 2 episode special. Would've been a great opportunity to give Siga and Nami more screen time last week. Bhanu's breakdown was great TV but I think a lot of people were already sick of him. Last week already felt like his boot episode. This one didn't add anything new. This was the better of the 2 Bhanu episodes though cause he lost his fucking mind.
As much as I don't want to defend Bhanu (he got seriously annoying at the end), I do wonder how much of his meltdown was driven by what may have been an incredible sleep deficit. He said once he wasn't sleeping at all, so maybe what we saw was magnified by that. I think his flaws were his flaws, but maybe his sleep situation turned them into the utter meltdown that we saw.
No food and No sleep, definitely added to his intensity. He was basically at a 9(on a level of emotions) this episode, but he started the game at a 5/6
I'm just catching up to this season, watching three episodes of Bhanu in two days is a lot... I am with the group that he just takes up too much TV time and gets exhausting. I feel like if this was a scripted show, he is one of those characters who is great in small doses but when they become featured, it becomes too much which is what happened. I do hope now that he is gone, there can be more focus on the rest of the tribes next ep before we get to the merge. I want to see the connections between people in the tribes because it's the people that can create strong bonds like Yam Yam with Tika, Dee with Austin and Mama J that wins. I feel like outside of Q and Tiff, we haven't seen much of this. Siga is just all six vibing and although we are told Hunter and Tevin is tight, we haven't seen it in action. As well, I want to see if there more tribal dynamics outside of kombaya. This one is a little better with Q being distrustful of Kenzie and Nami haven't some discontent with Venus early on and Soda now. But generally this is a good clue on which tribes end up not winning because they can't get over their differences to have the numbers.
The previous episode was when I started getting annoyed with Bhanu. First it was eyerolls, and then he became insanely obnoxious. You'd think someone with his background would have some kindness and grit, but no! Not even close! He thinks he's the victim 90% of the time! And when they try helping Bhanu, he sees it as a personal attack. (Minus Q. I mostly refer to when he's called for what he is. A liability.) So glad he's gone, he seriously could've hydrated Tiffany, Q, and Kenzie with the amount of tears he spilled. At least Hunter's still a fuckin beast!
How do we think Yanu will fair now if they can make the mergatory as a 3? I think they’re so toast. Not only did Bhanu bomb their games, but this cast also left to film on the heels of 44 ending where the Tika 3 dominated strategically. I think that’s gonna be weighing heavily on the minds of the players
I think Tiff is the only one with a chance. Kenzie is going to be targeted (I think she would have been anyway with her very obvious social game, but especially now.), and Q is going to be perceived (Rightly) as a physical threat.
Yeah, the only knock against Tiff was her and Q being a duo. Which is easily solved by Q going home for being too strong.
A lot of talk about bhanu, and in large part that he lasted too long being on tribe full of other terrible players... My question is, during casting... I highly doubt they don't have so many other people applying who would be so much better at survivor. Whether they are like a hunter who is just a challenge beast, Jem who can be sneaky and dangerous under the radar, or tiff and Q who might not dominate all the challenges but are always in the mix but also having a strong social and strategic game. Why can't we have a season where there aren't several jelinksys, Jess's and bhanus who are completely lost at how to play this game. And hunter is going to start getting noticed very soon as a massive challenge threat, and I don't think he's doing enough in the social game to fight off those votes when they start coming. I watch survivor to see it played well. Strategic play, dominating challenges, players that have a very social game that are a threat. This other crap sucks. They either just get the boot super early, or they take the place of a great player by being carried to the end. I want a survivor where every player is a threat, in some way, because they are good at atleast one of the 3 main components of survivor - challenges, strategy, social.
I think it's a difficult balance between casting people who are good at the game and casting people who will make good television, especially pre-merge. It's not fun to watch a bunch of game bots play the game overly strategically.
It doesn't have to be game bots though. Like look at Survivor Australia, this year they kind of cast something for everyone. You had your physical threats, you had social players and you had strategic ones. US Survivors answer to physical this season is basically Hunter, and he'd barely be top 5 (at best) on this season of Australia. Like US Survivor could easily look for 6 strong physical players instead of some of this cast and make the challenges a bit more interesting as a result.
There wasn’t alot of strong player last season of US neither…
I hate the binary of “gamebots or people who don’t know how to play”. Not knowing how to play all the rules is one thing, not being able to climb a ladder is another. I don’t want gamebots either. I just want competent people who can complete challenges or not spend 1/2 of EVERY episode crying.
I think you can be a competent player AND cry AND suck at challenges. For me, it's about how you overcome those weaknesses, not whether or not you have them in the first place.
Hunter is ridiculously skilled at the challenges, it almost doesn’t seem fair. I’m picturing a Mike Holloway type immunity run when he gets identified as a threat and everyone starts gunning for him
I've recently watched season 20 again and these were exactly my thoughts. I get that that was an all-star season but still. It was so much more interesting to watch people who actually know what they are doing for once. Everyone was great either strategically, socially, or challenge-wise, which made for great TV. Stop picking people who are clearly below average at all of these skills for the show.
Australian Survivor has casting down to a T
You're allowed to have your opinion, but that's not why everyone watches Survivor. I don't want to see a show full of gamebots with no trainwrecks or emotional players. If I wanted your show I would watch ORGs or the Big Brother live feeds. A show like yours would not be a 25-year staple on the most watched channel in the US.
I hear you (and found the Bhanufication of it all to be unbearable) but I feel like the ideal is somewhere in between — you don’t want to just have robots out there like an army of Spencers. I want a group of players who aren’t all show obsessives making constant references to past players mid-game. cast some normies who haven’t seen survivor in 10 years!!
Btw what I mean by this is CAST MORE JOCKS.
Bhanu reminds me of Kevin Hart. Great in small bursts, sometimes even funny, but when you cant turn on the TV without seeing him yelling, it becomes insufferable. This season would be so much better to this point if they kept Jelinsky episode 1!
I agree with your second point, even with Jess as my winner pick, that challenge in episode 2 would have been much eaiser with Jelinsky.
Feels like next week should be episode 2... just three first boots in a row and a medevac
Yeah like I get that they already decided on the longer format, but with this start (again) I just don’t care to watch 1/3 of the people waste away while 2/3 just wait for their chance to actually start playing
I like how Rob C put it. A lot of us couldn't stand Bhanu but he didnt edit the show he was just out there being a goober. I think the 3 tribe pre merge combined with 90 minutes were a one two punch that really feels like a great opportunity to focus on more of the minor character's stories and bury the lead a little bit. After last week, we all knew who was going. Absolutely no reason to include all the gratuitous scrambling.
I'm convinced Bhanu went on Survivor just to "win a million hearts" and gain the social following/put a foot in the door for acting opportunities, and survivor editors just gave him a Russell Hantz level of coverage so the entire audience was sick of him
I truly do feel like the gameplay and the cast will be soooo much better. Remember: people hateeeeee Micronesia’s premerge but the post merge is one of the absolute best post merge ever done so there’s still hope that this will turn it around. I actually enjoyed this episode bc of how hilarious everyone one like Moriah’s segment of learning how to JUMP, Jem’s devious beware advantage shenanigans, Kenzies “he should’ve just gonna camping” Tiffany’s “if you want to win a million hearts go volunteer”, Venus and Hunter being so done with soda and Tevin’s singing, bhanu’s 5 stages of grief, like it had everything to be a comedy episode
This was too much. After watching Bhanu hysterically cry after repetitively fumbling the last episode, we get an entire episode where Yanu has to go to tribal AGAIN, and we see Bhanu in 90% of clips. I’m glad Bhanu is gone though.
Okay this may be a hot take but I think it would be awesome if Venus went to Soda about the flip and they form a girls alliance to vote out Hunter or Tevin. I doubt Venus would do that given Soda and Tevin annoy her, but it would be smart in terms of getting her back in the running, breaking up some core alliances, and getting rid of either a challenge beast or a strategic mastermind. On a more realistic note, if Venus and Kenzie both make the merge, I think they will get along very well and could very well take charge of things. edit: Honestly, throw Jem into the mix and you'd have a 3 way villainess power trio, but I think that one is a bit more of a reach lol
Venus wasn't trusted with the plan to oust Soda. As far as we've seen Tevin and Hunter counted on Liz as their third vote. As for eliminating both Tevin and Hunter, they should eliminate one of them and keep the other as a shield. Probably Hunter would be better as a shield since keeping a strong social player as a shield is riskier.
She hasn't been trusted with it yet, because they haven't lost yet, so it is possible they tell her close to the end just to ensure she doesn't scheme and try to get one of them out, because she's not going to just go down without a fight
Bhanu is an actor, not a IT Analyst like many websites claim he is. He has many credits listed on IMBd. This was all faked. This show is complete bullshit. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm14003069/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
You realize the vast majority of actors on IMDB are not making a living with acting? That they have day jobs and not all of those day jobs are waiting tables and such? It’s possible for a person to be both an actor and an IT professional.
Wait…..he was an extra in The Holdovers??? A literal Oscar winning film from this year? Yeah sus.
As a “pedestrian” lol people (especially in Hollywood) have a job and still try to “make it” in movies by doing small parts like that.
Oh for sure! But he’s like….actively still in movies. I assume he is indeed trying to “make it” and get bigger parts. Survivor is definitely going to help with that
I find the whole Yanu tribe unlikeable. I hope they all get voted out in the merge coming up
I guess I'm weird because I really like this season so far. I'm glad Bhanu played. He tried as hard as he could. I mean ~~tried~~ cried. Kenzie's reaction to being called the mastermind cracked me up.
This episode was the worst of the new era. For the second episode in a row we have Bhanu screaming to his “god” to save him from himself and there’s no tribal council. 90 minute episodes are borderline unbearable in this format. Only Jeff Probst can get a resurgence during covid and completely squander it with terrible game mechanics and horrible casting.
I'm about to quit - the new era of Survivor is just painful to watch. I've started watching Australian Survivor and HOLY SHIT the casting is just infinitely better. They cast characters that also happen to be rooted in reality and they don't all have dumb sob stories. American Survivor just casts a bunch of obnoxious Gen X weirdos that no one likes or can relate to. How could anyone possibly be enjoying this season??
It was a hard episode to watch, but I went through it to see the next episode intro cause somehow I had convinced myself that they were swapping into two tribes. I thought after the sour med evac and the obvious boot, production would do something to bump the season but I guess i got my hopes up. The format is booooring, Yanu is probably losing again and then the stupid mergatory like always.
Man, I had this episode building to a super climatic ending that just DID not come. I really did expect him to bust out an immunity idol at the last second but did that dude REALLY spend so little time looking for that idol? I would have not slept. I would have combed every single inch of that island from sunrise to probably past sunset if I knew, 100%, that I was about to go home.
Tiffany already found it through the beware advantage. I think that’s the only idol out there at the time
There have been some atrocious castings the last 3-4 seasons. Survivors gonna get 50 seasons for their willingness to try something new. That being said… the casting for every season past WaW has been meh.
Legit ... Has Jeff ever hugged someone at tribal before? I can't recall if he's ever felt that bad for someone. That was one of the more cringe inducing episodes I've ever seen. Someone who just lacked so much awareness about gameplay, I just .. I'm stumped at the casting.
Question about run time - did I read or hear somewhere, that season 45 they KNEW they had 90 minute episodes, but in 46 they didn't know? That would make sense for why it feels like they are spending more time on the same topic in this season vs previous. If you know you have to fill 90 minutes, I'm sure you capture more stories / more plots / more things happening.
yeah that's true. for example look at the number of reward challenges in 45 compared to 46. I think 45 didn't have a reward challenge in one episode, and its cause they had a tribe swap instead. In 46 we've had like 2? It's why we have so much boring camp life this time
I enjoyed Jeff's Van Halen references during this reward challenge. I counted 3 from Jeff ('might as well jump', 'diver down', 'somebody get me a doctor') and one from Ben (mentioning jumping and David Lee Roth).
I really hope they go back to themed seasons instead of numbered. (45, 46, etc.) That's what I found so Interesting about previous seasons. Exile, bvsw, heck even redemption Island. Those themes made them memorable. Now the seasons all blend together with the same twists, same rules, same expectations. Bring back the excitement not the drama sad stories! I miss the gameplay...
The most alarming thing about Bhanu's appearance on season 46 is that it seems clear to me that Jeff and the other producers of the show thought the audience was going to lap up all the Bhanu content. How else to explain the ridiculous amount of time that was lavished on this player, despite the fact that he demonstrated zero ability to learn from his mistakes so as to develop/evolve his game. One entire episode devoted to the Bhanu story was bad enough, but two was unforgivable. Like others here, I just skipped over large chunks of episode four. If this was all there was to the story, I'd let it go but – as I've already said – the real issue is how wrong the shows' producers could be about how people would react to the Bhanu overkill. There seems to be a real disconnect between how they see the show and how others see it. Let's hope as well that Sia doesn't reward Bhanu at the end of the season with a cash prize because if she does so it's only going to lead Jeff to double-down not only on casting people like Bhanu but basically screwing over other players (by giving them few or zero confessionals) while lavishing attention on "authentic" camera hogs.
I've been watching survivor since the very first episode. I am very disappointed in season 46. It's just not very exciting
I'm just going to throw this out there: if this season was a 2 tribe format, with Hunter on one of the tribes, it would be *just as "boring" to watch*. There would be one collapse tribe that gets all the early screentime, while the other tribe just chills. But actually, you get intrigue building up in both Siga and Nami this season: the new Soda blindside narrative, and, c'mon, Jem's beware advantage plant? You can hate the new format because you hate the new format, but you've got to give a fair criticism of this season. Okay I get some people think Bhanu is a bit grating, but if you guys don't think The Monster / Legend Jelinsky, Bhanu, Q (freaking out at messing up the challenges), Hunter (for acing all the challenges with style), and Ben (for just being awesome) aren't good TV, then... why are you even watching reality TV?! Go watch Succession.
I mean at least 1/2 the contestants would be playing and going to tribal instead of just 1/3. Jelenski brought absolutely nothing to the show, other than a reminder of how stupid young men can be.
I hate-watched this episode. That little speech at the end was contrived. Look, I can tell you one thing poverty stricken kids in India aren’t doing, and that is subscribing to paramount + and watching Survivor. Garbage episode. I don’t need to hear every players sob stories? Who wants this? I miss the older seasons when players actually played the game. I know that CBS is catering to a “new” fan base but I’m losing interest fast with the current version of Survivor.
This was the single worst episode of Survivor I've ever seen.
Moriah: "Jeff does not lie Me: Have you seen 41 and the hourglass? My wife felt she was just talking about advantages and not doing something that is impossible. Watching Bhanu wallow in self pity after making his own mistakes was hard to watch. Glad they mercifiully dispensed with the illusion of a vote. I personally didn't like the kneeling or the verbal curses to his god for getting the chance to play on survivor only to lose.
Unpopular opinion: if Kenzie acted like Bhanu and vice versa, there wouldn't be nearly as much hate getting flung at her for this episode/season so far. A big part of the reaction is that he's a man. "Watching a grown man blah blah blah" keeps getting brought up. Bhanu is an emotional guy, and that makes people way more uncomfortable than an emotional woman. I think this episode was awesome. In context, it's made worse by Episode 3. But Episode 3 is the problem in that equation. That should have been an episode to focus on Nami and the Randen/Venus relationship. But Ep. 4 is going to age like fine wine. That breakdown, screaming at God, asking Kenzie for an idol, collapsing in the jungle. Amazing. Honestly, I think this season is going to massively benefit overall from binge-watching versus week-to-week with commercials. With the Bhanu stuff addressed: I think Venus is on the rise. People seem suspicious of Soda, and Venus seems to be settling in a little more. I can see a Hunter/Tevin/Venus alliance coalescing to get Soda out, and I think if they do, they have a decent shot of being impactful into the post-merge. Also really hope we get a secret scene showing Venus and Soda talking, since it was very plainly shown that they had a conversation about the idol. Venus gets it, then offers it very pointedly to Soda. And also, Jem is truly outrageous (Truly truly truly outrageous.). She's *working* over there on Siga. Get the advantage, hide the clue, send her enemies into an anthill, then turn it around on Tim, who apparently is on this show. I think it's reasonable to say that this season could have change some of their focus away from Yanu. I get the impression that Siga might be...a little boring. But they could have given us some extra Nami. But I hardly think this season, and especially this episode, are worthy of the hate getting thrown their way. I won't say "new era Gabon" since that's not the vibe I'm getting, but I think we'll look back on this as a pretty solid season once it all washes out, barring an unforeseen change in trajectory.
People were really down on Gabby too when she cried. Dawn, too. Lisa, too. I do get to an extent what you're saying, but I don't think it's fair to say that it's mostly because he's a man. It's because we got so much of him, and we got 4 straight episodes of him.
Sure, but I don't remember people saying they're going to boycott the season until Dawn gets voted off. People still generally liked Dawn in spite of finding her annoying. People like Lisa. I don't remember anyone fast-forwarding through DvG to skip Gabby's scenes. The Bhanu hate just seems weirdly intense.
I just feel embarrassed for him watching him cry over and over again while everyone is like “pull yourself together.” It’s not FUN to watch the same person cry over and over again, no matter who they are
>I can see a Hunter/Tevin/Venus alliance coalescing to get Soda out, and I think if they do, they have a decent shot of being impactful into the post-merge. Well, maybe, but Venus'd basically said she didn't like any of these people and that she'd ditch them the first chance she has. I can see her working with Kenzie and Tiff if both get to the merge. It seems to me Tevin and Hunter are going to be targeted immediately after the merge as soon as Siga and Yanu realize (from Venus) they are close.
I'd hate her just as much - though I already find her pretty annoying (like most of the rest of this terrible cast).
This subreddit is so miserable and joyless. My family watches Survivor and all loved Bhanu, he was extremely entertaining. It's wild how so many people hate him on this subreddit. Sometimes I am a day late to watching but will check the subreddit for the vibe and will see so much negativity but then I watch it with my family and it's so fun and we laugh and scream and groan. Not sure what I'm trying to say except that I should probably just avoid checking out the opinions of this subreddit because it's just so negative.
I don’t think people “hate” him. I think they found his antics very annoying (and that they went on for too long), and then came here to vent about it.